Saturday, April 26, 2014

April 26, 2014 -- Furious Fevers and Vicious Vertigo

Hello dear praying friends and family!  Here is another update on the past several hours. . .

After a couple good hours in the afternoon, Hope's fever started to climb again and was soon at 40.5 degrees.  She started to feel pretty crummy again.  She started throwing up right after having complaints of severe dizziness.  And then she started having what seemed like little mini seizures with her eyes jerking back and forth, after each dizzy spell and then more throwing up.  She said it felt like the room was spinning around in circles. 

They called the doctors, and a pediatrician came to assess her.  The pediatrician on call tonight happened to be one of Hope's wonderful past doctors in the hospital and it was very great to see her again after a couple of years, even under the circumstances.  She did a thorough assessment and felt that Hope was having vertigo and not seizures.  That was a relief, but also mysterious as to the cause of the vertigo and absolutely miserable for Hope.  She came back after some time to research and then suggested it could be the antibiotic, Vancomycin, that she in on.  So Hope is now going to have bloodwork drawn again at 12:45 am to see if her levels are toxic. . . 6th poke for the day!  I am not looking forward to telling her. 
: (

Please pray for this upcoming poke to hit the mark on the first hit.  She's really running short of options for bloodwork.  She has three pokes on one vein alone!  If the levels are toxic, then she will stop this antibiotic.  If not, then the antibiotic will continue and we will just keep watching her and add another unexplained symptom to the list.

Hope was exhausted after a couple hours of vicious vertigo, and finally fell asleep for almost 2 hours, however needing oxygen to keep her oxygen sats high enough (which were also low all throughout the vertigo episodes).  Hope's fevers continued and after Hope stirred, we were able to get a dose of Tylenol on board as her fever had stayed well above 40 degrees.  It took a while, but the fevers have finally come down now a couple hours later and Hope is feeling much better now that the Tylenol has kicked in.  Temps are down to 38.5, which is much more tolerable for her. 

We're not going to bother settling for night until after the poke at 12:45 am as she will likely be very upset about it.  Looking forward to having that behind her!

We continue to just watch her and see how she does.  Nothing else has changed (for better or for worse) since our last post.  It is just a waiting game now.  We would be quite okay to keep waiting, but a decent night's sleep would be fantastic.  We're all so very tired!

Thank you so much for you prayers, dear ones!  I'm so tired and keep dozing off as I type this.  Trev went home a couple hours ago and is working on his sermon for tomorrow.  He also broke a big chunk off one of his molars this evening and it's pretty sore.  And I just received a phone call from the friends who are so kindly keeping Gabi overnight and she's complaining of a bad headache and a unable to sleep.  Hmmm . . . fatigue is a bummer!!!  A good night's sleep would do our entire family a world of good!  But I am so thankful for the sufficiency of God's grace, which is always evident. . . from the dear friends that brought food today or served us in others ways, to a special Grammy who drove a long way today to spend some time with her grand-girlie, to wonderful, caring and wise doctors, to compassionate sweet nurses, to the precious notes of encouragement, to the vast sea of prayers being lifted up on Hope's and our behalf, to the love of our Saviour which in itself would be enough. . . we are blessed and we have much to thank the Lord for!  Thank you for continuing to keep our family in prayer through this difficult time!

You are loved, dear ones!!! 

2 comments:

  1. You all are a testimony to us of the Lords great love. You encourage me and we a fervently praying for you all. God's hand of healing be with you all.

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  2. Praying for Hope to find comfort from the fevers and dizziness. Is there not a way the nurses can insert a line for blood draws, instead of having to poke her all the time? I recently went through a hospitalization of only 2 days, but with blood taken 8 times during that period...oh, what a relief it would have been to have found a better way. I hope this is an option for your sweet Hopey!!

    Praying for God's grace to continue to cover the family and that healing will be felt by all of you. Blessings to you all.

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